China’s Xue Haowen began the event without any Fide titles and ended it as a grandmaster, unbeaten on 7/9 and breaking Judit Polgar’s record as the youngest winner
Hastings is the grandfather of international chess tournaments, first staged in 1895 and annually since 1920, with brief war and pandemic breaks. Its vintage decades were the 1930s, 50s and 70s, when world champions and challengers lined up to compete, while the badminton legend Sir George Thomas and the Bletchley Park codebreaker Hugh Alexander both shared first after defeating renowned opponents.
Nowadays, the Caplin Hastings Masters has publicity problems, sandwiched as it is between the London Classic and Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, while this year it also coincided with the Carlsen show on Wall Street at the high profile World Rapid/Blitz.
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